Joaquin de la Pezuela

Joaquin de la Pezuela (1761-1830) was Viceroy of Peru from 7 July 1816 to 29 January 1821, succeeding Jose Fernando de Abascal and preceding Jose de la Serna.

Biography
Joaquin de la Pezuela was born in Naval, Spain in 1761 to a hidalgo family, and he served in the Spanish Army at the Great Siege of Gibraltar during the American Revolutionary War and later against the French in Navarre during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1805, he was sent to the Americas to take command of the army in Alto Peru (Bolivia), and he went on to become a royalist general during the South American Wars of Liberation. In 1813, he defeated the Argentine general Manuel Belgrano at Vilcapugio and Ayohuma, and he occupied Jujuy and Salta in 1814. In 1815, he scored a decisive victory at Sipe-Sipe, inflicting 2,000 casualties on the rebels. In 1816, he was made a Marquis, promoted to Lieutenant-General, and named Viceroy of Peru. However, the absolutist Pezuela and his liberal general Jose de la Serna became rivals, and Serna initially intended to return to Spain before Pezuela named Serna president of a council of war. In 1821, an army mutiny backed by Serna forced Pezuela to resign and return to Spain, and he became Captain General of New Castile in 1825. He died in Madrid in 1830.